Zatanna: Hellish Elementals

A couple of weeks back I put up a post about Zatanna vs Demons.

I wanted to come back to these monsters for the May Monster Madness.

In truth Zee doesn't fight a lot of monsters.  Bad guys, demons and arch fiends sure, but not your garden variety monsters.

The closest were a trio of demonic elementals that she fights in issues #4 and #5 of the recent Paul Dini run of Zatanna.

These creatures took the shape of old women, but underneath were hellish fire elementals in the shape of young women.

Zatanna wa able to defeat them by redirecting a swimming pool that had been blessed into holy water into her hotel room.

Hellions
Basic Era D&D / The Witch (because I can)

Armor Class:  3 [16]
Hit Dice: 6d8+4* (30 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 claws /  breath weapon
Damage: 1d4+2 / 1d4+2 / 1d8 (fire)
Special: fear, flame body, ignite. Double Damage from Holy Water
Movement: 90’
No. Appearing: 1-3
Saves As: Fighter 6
Morale: 8
Treasure: None
Alignment: Evil
XP: 300

Hellions cause fear as per the spell (Save vs. Paralysis to negate).  They also breathe out a lick of flame while attacking, save vs Breath Weapon for half-damge.
Their bodies are made of flame, but they are not fire elementals in the strictest since. They are demonic spirits and thus unlike elemental they are intelligent and have individuality.  They can disguise themselves as human by finding a human and burning them from the inside out.  They then can crawl into their skin and use that as a suit.


Hellion
Ghosts of Albion, Unisystem

Creature Type: Demon
Life Points: 30
Drama Points: 1

Attributes
Str: 3
Dex: 3
Con: 4
Int: 3
Per: 4
Will: 5

Ability Scores
Muscle: 12, Combat: 12, Brains: 10
Special Abilities: Demon, Fear, Hard to Kill, Lesser Sensing, Water Vulnerability, Breathe Fire, Resistance (Fire).

Anyone seeing a Hellion for the first time must make a Fear check (Willpower x2).
Hellions do not take damage from fire but take double damage from water based attacks (treat water splash as acid).

Manoeuvres
Name Score Damage Notes
Claw x2 +12 6 bash + fire*
Fire Breath +12 12 fire* (extra fire damage based on SL)
Deflect +11 - Magic defence action; deflects spell 45˚

Blogfest: Ray Harryhausen Aprreciation

Today is a celebration of the work of Ray Harryhausen and is hosted by +R.J. Thompson at Gamers & Grognards.  Like many gamers my age I saw Clash of the Titans and IMMEDIATELY grabbed everything in it for D&D (yes. even that owl).  But that is not what I want to talk about today.

No, my favorite Ray Harryhausen movie is "The First Men in the Moon".

I am not sure exactly when I first saw this movie, but I am sure it was on WGN's Family Classics movies on Saturday Afternoon. (or was is Sunday) and it was the same time I was really into gaming. Anyway, the movie was a great distillation of all my interests at the time; sci-fi, horror, fantasy, Victorian England.  It was a heady brew to be sure.

Plus those aliens.  The stop motion was glorious for the time and those monsters were just so creepy.

I remember spending sometime trying to figure out how to get these creatures into my games, or at least some of these ideas.  There is though some obvious homages to this movie to be found in Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

The most obvious "child" though of this movie (and the H.G. Wells book) is Space: 1899. The game even features Selenites and an adventure on the moon.

For the longest time I wanted bugs on the moon because of this film.

Selenite
Selenites are a race native to Earth's Moon.  They are named after the Greek Goddess of the Moon, Selene.
They are smaller than humans, 4'6" to 5'3" tall, they are of a slight build and not very strong.  They appear to be some form of humanoid insect. They are hairless and large compound eyes.  They do require oxygen to breathe, but not as much as a human.  Most Selenites are members of a working caste.  They work on the Selenite cities and help harvest the great moon cows that they use for food. The Selenites psychology and behavior was very much like that of ants or other social insects. (creatures in the book had wings and could fly, I don't remember if they flew in the movie) When not needed a Selenite can go into a self-imposed coma-like suspended animation.
Selenite cities and machines are all solar powered. They were able to keep their cities lit and oxygenated, but during solar-earth eclipses all non essential machines shut down.  The Selenites would also use  this time to enter a rest phase of their own.
The leader of the Selenites is the Grand Lunar.  This being is smaller in size but commands a keen intellect.

Selenite (Ghosts of Albion)
Motivation: Serve the Colony
Critter Type: Alien
Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Constitution 1, Intelligence 3, Perception 4, Willpower 3
Ability Scores: Muscle 8, Combat 7, Brains 9
Life Points: 30
Drama Points: 1
Qualities: Acute Senses (sight)
Drawbacks: Attractiveness -2
Skills: Armed Mayhem 1

Combat Maneuvers
Name Score Damage Notes
claw(x2) 7 4 bash
stun gun 7 6 +Con check stun

Selenite (OSR/Basic/S&W/D&D)
Hit Dice: 2
Armor Class: 8 [11]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4) or solar gun (1d6 + stun, save vs. Paralysis)
Move: 18'
Save: F2
Alignment: Neutral
Challenge/XP: 2/200

The Grand Lunar has no move, lesser strength (1 and 5) but very high intelligence (7 and 20).
If you game uses psionics then there is a chance "he" has them.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else does!

I am also participating in the May Monster Madness.  So today is my first post for that.
http://www.anniewalls.com/2013/04/may-monster-madness-sign-up-linky-list.html

Blogfests

Doing the A to Z was not enough for me so I am signing up for a few more blogfests.

I like these things.  They help me stretch my creative muscles and give me something special to work for.
Plus it exposes my blog and work to others that might not seek me out.

May Monster Madness
http://littlegothichorrors.blogspot.com/2013/04/second-annual-may-monster-madness-blog.html
http://www.anniewalls.com/2013/04/may-monster-madness-sign-up-linky-list.html
http://wickedwaysproductions.blogspot.com.au/

I love monsters as you might be able to tell.  So I am going to try to post something each day of this.  My hope would be to post something to promote Eldritch Witchery some more.

The Best and Worst Remakes Blogfest
http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-to-z-challenge-memento-meant-to-live.html

From the King of Blogfests, Alex Cavanaugh.  I am not sure what I going to do here yet, but I am certain it will be horror related.

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/2013/03/hop-against-homophobia-and-transphobia_15.html

I have never been shy about the fact that I support equal rights for everyone. In particular I have been a strong supporter of gay rights and freedom to marry rights.  So I am very pleased to be part of this one.  Since this hop is focused on authors I am going to talk about some characters.  Honestly no idea who yet.

Towel Day Blogfest
http://lgkeltner.blogspot.com/2013/04/announcing-towel-day-blogfest.html

This one is easy.  I am going to talk about what is the best RPG to play a "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" game.

May ends with:

The Obscure Fantasy RPGs Appreciation Day
http://mesmerizedbysirens.blogspot.com/2013/05/announcing-obscure-fantasy-rpgs.html
(no image yet, but here is one from the site)

This will be a bunch of blogs talking about their favorite pre 90s fantasy RPGs.  I think I know which one I want to do.


Heroes & Villains Blogfest 
http://danibertrand.blogspot.com/2013/04/u-unfair-ultraviolet-blogfest-unveiled.html

This one is very new to me.  I am sure I can come up with something in the next month!

There you have it!  Watch for these over the next month.

Review: Teratic Tome

The Teratic Tome

The Teratic Tome is an "old school" monster book for OSRIC or any old School "Advanced" version of the game.  What do you get?  Well a lot.  Let's start with some of the things that others have not all mentioned first. This book is 100% OGC.  So if you want to use one of these horrors in one of your products go right ahead. Just abide by the OGL.  There are a lot of reasons why you might want to use these monsters too.  They are some of the most original horrors I have seen outside of indie horror games.

The layout and feel is evocative of those "monster manuals" of old. It does quite a nice job of it too.  The art though is much better than what you would have seen circa 1980.  The art varies in style, but all of it is quite good.   Now is a good time to point out that the art and the monsters they depict are not for the faint of heart.  There is a lot of "body horror" here.  The grotesque mixed with the commonplace or even the erotic.  The feeling is more Clive Barker than H.P. Lovecraft and I think that was a great direction to go.

Truthfully I would have picked this up for the demons and dragons alone, but there are 120 pages worth monsters here. Even the halflings are evil little buggers in this tome.

If you like horror and new creatures, and your players can handle it, then this is a great monster book.
If you like horror and monster books in general, then this is great to have as well.

Plus who can argue with a $6.66 price tag?

Who should not get this?  I don't know really.  I mean I am not going to use any of these creatures in my games with my kids.  So that does lessen the utility for me, but I can still use some ideas. And that is just as good.

A lot of people like to call this the "LotFP Monster Manual" but that is not being fair to this book to be honest.  It really is more than that.

You can learn more about the book at the author's website: http://rafaelchandler.com/rpgs.html

Or you can pick up a hardbound copy at Lulu:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/rafael-chandler/teratic-tome/hardcover/product-20695443.html
If you buy the PDF first then you get a discount on the hardcover.  Not a bad deal really.

Meanwhile at Hero Press...

What the hell is this thing???

I have no idea. Neither does Tim over at Hero Press.  But if you do it could be worth something.
Worth a copy of Icons or "'With Great Power...' The Stan Lee Story".

He is sponsoring a contest to name and flesh out this monster as part of his 6th anniversary of blogging.

So go over there and ... dare I say it...give him a hand!

Day of the Triffids

One of my favorite movies is the 1962 Day of the Triffids, based on the book of the same name.

More so than zombies Triffids are the worse mass-enemy you can face.  Sure they are slow, but unlike zombies they are intelligent and totally alien.  They are walking killer plants.  The book and movie differ, but one of the things I remember the most is the sound the Triffids made as they moved.  Scared the hell out of me.

No reason why I should suffer alone.

I am going to keep the extra-terrestrial origin since that makes them seem more, excuse to turn of phase, alien.  It also gives us a reason to find these things on Earth in any age or other planets.

General Description
A Triffid is a plant creature that stands roughly 7ft to 8ft tall (2.2 to 2.5 meters).  The base of the creature has three large roots  that it can pull up and use to for locomotion. Moving two legs forward followed by the other. They don't move quickly, but consistently.  The base is crowned with a long thin body (the "trunk") with the flowering "head".  The flowering part can eject a long 10ft/3meter tendril that injects a deadly poison into the victim.  The triffid then consumes the poisoned animal.  If that animal happens to be a human, then so be it.
The triffid also has small appendages near it's root base where the trunk portion grows.  It beats these in a constant droning clicking.  It generally believed that these are used as echolocation  communication or the attracting of mates.
Triffids are not susceptible to blood loss (no blood). Fire and extreme cold do double damage. Water based attacks or ones the replicate sunlight or UV radiation cause the triffid to regenerate loss health due to damage. Triffids take normal damage from electricity. Triffids are immune to sleep, charm, and hold magics or psionics. They can't become undead nor be raised from the dead.  Triffids can be killed with salt water since they are plants.
Unless burned or soaked in salt water a triffid will regenerate all lost health even if seemingly dead (0 hp).

Triffids reproduce via spores in the air which land on other triffids.  They produce a large white seed pod.  On Earth the seed pod is infertile 95% of the time. On their own home worlds the seeds are only 50% infertile.

Stats for some of my new favorite games.

Triffids (Amazing Adventures, Castles & Crusades)
NO. ENCOUNTERED: 2-12 (2d6) small groups,  300-1800 (3d6x100) worldwide
SIZE: Medium
HD: 3d8 (13)
MOVE: 20 ft.
AC: 11
ATTACKS: Slam (1d8) or stinger (1d4/poison)
SPECIAL: Blend, Darkvision 60 ft., Feed, Regeneration 3/6, Slow, Twilight Vision,
SANITY: 1d6/1d8
SAVES: P
INT: Low-Average
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
TYPE: Plant
XP: 30+3


Regeneration: Triffids regenerate 3 hp per round under normal circumstances even if reduced to below 0.  The regenerate 6 hp per round if they have access to water or sunlight (or uv).

Triffids (Starships & Spacemen, Mutant Future, Labyrinth Lord, The Witch)
Encountered: 2-12 (2d6) small groups,  300-1800 (3d6x100) worldwide
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 180' (60')
Intelligence: Low-Average
Psionic Potential: none
Hits: 3d8
Armor: 8
Combat Skill/Save: I3
Save: L3
Attacks: Slam (1d8) or stinger (1d4/poison)
Damage: 1d8/1d4 Poison
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: None
XP: 35

Here There Be Dragons updates

With The Witch out and EW in the hands of the publisher it is time to move on to other projects.

I want to talk about "Here There Be Dragons" for a bit.  We paused on this last year to give my son time to concentrate on his school work.  Over the summer things were just way too busy and then I needed to finish the Witch.

Be we are back.  One of the things we want to do is come up with a good dragon statblock that covers the Old School feel we wanted but also includes all the information we want to get out about dragons.  I also want to retain as much good information from the SRD as we can.

In the 1st Advanced Era dragons had 8 age categories.  In the 3rd Edition/SRD era there are 12.
The age categories are also significantly different.  In earlier editions of the game the differences were not great.  In the newer versions there is quite a bit of difference between a Wyrmling and a Great Wyrm.
This can be seen in the SRD here for Blue Dragons.

There are plenty of good and open under the OGL stat blocks for dragons. OSRIC has one, Labyrinth Lord Advanced Companion is another and slightly different. The stat blocks in Castles & Crusades are also open and try to merge the best of 1.x and 3.x in their own way as well. In fact they even fit 12 age categories into 8 rather well.

Additionally Dragons should have more spells as the age, have more treasure and be more powerful, not just harder to hit or kill.

So here is a rough draft of a dragon stat block for a Blue Dragon.

Blue Dragon
Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 1d4
Size:  See below
Move: 90' fly 240' (AA: level II)
Hit Dice: typically 8 to 10
Armor Class: typically 2
Attacks:  1 bite, 2 claws or magic
Damage: 1d6 / 1d6 / 3d8
Special Attacks: Breath Weapon, Dragon Fear, Magic Use
Special Defenses:
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Very
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Treasure: ????
Chance of:
- Speaking: 40% + 5%/Age
- Magic-use: 20% + 5%/Age
- Sleeping: 10% + 5%/Age
- In Lair: 20% + 5%/Age
Level/XP: See Below

Breath Weapon: Lighting Bolt, 100' long, 5' wide, line
Spells: As Wizard of level equal to HD

Age	Size (length)	HD (hp)	AC	Breath Damage	Breath Range	Level/XP
1	4'	4 (18)	5 (15)	4d8	40'	4/
2	8'	6 (27)	4 (16)	6d8	60'	6/
3	12'	8 (36)	3 (17)	8d8	80'	8/
4	20'	10 (45)	2 (18)	10d8	100'	10/
5	25'	12 (54)	1 (19)	12d8	120'	12/
6	32'	14 (63)	0 (20)	14d8	140'	14/
7	48'	16 (72)	-1 (21)	16d8	160'	16/
8	60'	18 (81)	-2 (22)	18d8	180'	18/

Age Category		Age Years
1	Wyrmling	0-10
2	Young	11-25
3	Juvenile	26-50
4	Young Adult	51-100
5	Adult	101-250
6	Old	251-500
7	Very Old	501-1,000
8	Ancient	1,000+

These tables will be tweaked as we go along.

Not sure if this is the final version, it is though a working one.
I put in the the average hp on a d8 per HD since I also had the idea that HD could stay the same (say 10) and a dragon gets it's age category in hp.  So Wyrmling would have had 10 hp and an Ancient dragon 80 hp.  It works for the Blue here, not sure about the rest; I think it might.

Did not calculate the XP yet.
Still have no idea how I want to do treasure.  Should I use LL Hoard Classes or list out like in OSRIC?


Credit where credit is due.

Section 15 of the OGL.

System Reference Document copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

OSRIC copyright 2006-08 by Stuart Marshall, adapting material prepared by Matthew J. Finch, based on the System Reference Document, inspired by the works of E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, and many others.


Advanced Edition Companion, Copyright 2009-2010, Daniel Proctor. Author Daniel Proctor.



Hypertext SRD, 2005 Jans Carton.


Castles & Crusades: Monsters & Treasure, Copyright 2005, Troll Lord Games; Authors Robert Doyel and Stephen Chenault.

Blue Dragon: Here There Be Dragons, Copyright 2012, Liam and Timothy Brannan.

All material is open under the OGL.

MONSTROUS MONDAY: Fin

I am very, very pleased with the way MONSTROUS MONDAY turned out!

Thank you all very much who participated, commented and visited all the sites.

Managing the sites was pretty easy.  Many of the participants were familiar faces from other blog hops, so they knew what to do.   I did delete a few sites from the listings.  Some signed up early and then must have forgotten.  Others signed up yesterday and never posted a link back or a monster.  One I even recognized from previously bloghops/blogfests as signing up but never participating.  Obviously just looking for the links.

I have a LinkyTools account now, so I am going to look into ways of using it to improve my site.  Likely a dynamic link list of some sort.

Though the action is not done here yet.  I still have the WICKED AFTER DARK bloghop I am participating in.  Don't forget to visit all those sites and enter for some free stuff.  I am giving away a copy of the Witch!
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/10/wicked-after-dark-blog-hop-spread-witch.html

MONSTROUS MONDAY: My Monster

How is your MONSTROUS MONDAY going so far?

Mine is GREAT!  I love seeing so many cool monsters.  I have not gotten to everyone, but I will.
In fact you can still sign up!  I am sure I am going to spend the next couple of days going to every site and reading what you all posted.  If I am going to run a blog hop and people are going to work to get posts up then you can expect that each and everyone will get my attention.

I wanted to talk about what sort of monsters I like.  I have spent this month posting all sorts of monster stats in preparation of this day.
- Wine Nymphs
- Ruslaka
- The Awakened Golem
- Witch Monsters

I also talk a lot about monsters here as can be seen from my posts tagged Monsters.  Now it is natural to assume that I would want to talk about Witches today. Though honestly I don't see witches as monsters.  Witches are witches.   No in truth my favorite monsters are Vampires.

I have talked more about vampires than pretty much any other monster, maybe even all monsters combined. The vampire is our dark mirror of our times.  He can be plague and pestilence, or smooth killer, or even ersatz super-hero.  While Edward my not look a thing like Dracula or Count Orlock, he does share more than one quality with the likes of Lord Ruthven or Lestat.

My favorite of course is Dracula.  He can be suave, sexy and cool and then in a flash be violent and bloody; a rampaging monster.  He is the best of what is great about vampire literature and film.
I have talked a lot about Dracula and the subject never gets old to me.  Back in the day I had this folder that I had written "Project Dracula" on.  It was one of my first attempts at multi-stating a character for more than one system.  Near the end of the 90s I had worked him out in dozens of systems.

I would later go on to do the same thing for the real life Countess Erzsébet Báthory.  If I have written more about Dracula, Bathory wins in terms of shear number of visits to my site.  She fascinated me and horrified me at the same time.  I could not imagine the scope of her crimes or even how she got away with it all.  I guess in the end she didn't and she got her everlasting youth afterall.

I also spent a lot of time discussing the cheesy horror movie Vampyres. I will not lie, I enjoy the hel lout of this movie.  What I like about it is how the vampire has evolved yet again here to be victim and villain.   Likewise I have felt the same about Carmilla.

Looking around this blog I seem to have stated up more vampires than I have witches.  Oddly enough I have not played all that many games of Vampire. Either the original Vampire the Masquerade or the newer Vampire the Requiem.

If vampires are thing and you also like old-school gaming then might I suggest my free book, The Vampire Class.  You can play a vampire character in Basic Era games and it is 100% free and 100% compatible with my new  book The Witch.

So what about you all?  Do you like vampires? Why or why not? Share your thoughts below!

For me they are the ultimate in Halloween monsters.

MONSTROUS MONDAY

NOTE: Looking for the Entry Page for the WICKED AFTER DARK Bloghop? Click HERE!

Are you ready for the MONSTROUS MONDAY Blogfest?

Check out all the sites that have signed up.
Come back all day today for more MONSTROUS fun!

Monster Monday Round-up #4

Last Round-up of the Monstrous Mondays!
Next week follow the bloghop links to see all the monsters.

• The Wesker, http://towerofthearchmage.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-monster-wesker.html
• Dreams of the Lich House has a Gaki, http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-monday-gaki-hungry-ghost.html
• Two great tastes! Scarecrow Ninjas, http://madavid13.blogspot.com/2012/10/monster-monday-scarecrow-ninjas-for.html
• Christian has Giant Rats, http://unknownzine.blogspot.com/2012/10/giant-rat.html
• Hit Adjacent Ally has Black Hornets, http://hitadjacentally.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-monday-black-hornet-of-green.html
• Bessie, The Hellcow! http://punverse.blogspot.com/2012/10/mastermind-monday-marvels-hellcow.html
• Drowned Sorceress, http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2012/10/monster-monday-drowned-sorceress-of-far.html
• Savage Menagerie: Bro'ding, http://www.savageafterworld.com/2012/10/mutated-monday-savage-menagerie-broding.html
• The Lorf of the Stickmen, The HORRIBLE Mr. Sticks, http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-mondays-horrible-mr-sticks.html
• Pyre wraiths, http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2012/10/13-days-of-halloween-day-four.html
• A Field Guide to Doomsday has a ton of monsters! Not just on Monday, but most days, http://afieldguidetodoomsday.blogspot.com/
• FATE SF has Lunar Rock Aliens, http://fatesf.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-mondays-lunar-rock-aliens.html
• More bugs with The Everwayan:The Eurypterid Kings, http://everwayan.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-mondays-eurypterid-kings.html
• Serpent Tiger at …and the sky full of dust., http://www.theskyfullofdust.co.uk/2012/10/monster-monday-serpent-tiger/
• The disgusting Bloat Zombie, http://thedwarvenstronghold.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-monday-bloat-zombie.html
• The Boneflower Skeleton (Template), http://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/new-monster-boneflower-skeleton-template/

I am sure there are some I have missed. If so, just let me know.

Monstrous Monday #4: Witch Monsters

For today I want to do something a little different.

The Witch came out over the weekend and I want to talk about the relationship between witches and monsters and why there are monsters in a "class" book.

There are essentially two types of monsters that come up when talking about witches in myth, legend and fairytales.
1. Monsters that are associated with witches.  These would be things like familiars or created monsters.
2. Monsters that are witches.  The hags and crones of myth, but also some vampires and werewolves.

I'll cover these both with some examples from The Witch.

Monsters Associated with Witches
Witches have a number of "monsters" that are often associated with them.  Familiars and created monsters are the most common.  In The Witch I cover familiars quite a bit as a character option, but I also include a lot of special familiars.  The Brownie, or brown man, is known to many gamers. What many people don't know that the mythology of the brownie is tied to old pagan beliefs.  The Cait Sith, or faerie cat is another type of creature that indicates the presence of a witch, or in the case sometimes is a witch.
Other  creatures pose an interesting problem because of how they are portrayed in myth  is sometimes different from how they are portrayed in the rules.  Gnomes are a good example.  In the games (and SRD) they are a player character race, but in many pagan myths gnomes are creatures of earth, something like an elemental, that can aid a witch. To split the difference I made their magic more witch like than other portrayals.  Witches are often found in the company of trolls since both are fairy tale and fantasy staples. These trolls are not the green, rubbery type, but more of the creatures of earth found in Norway.
For created creatures, I have included the Druther, which is a special form of a wood golem that I created in my games years and years ago.  Another original monster is the Batling, a monster created by witchcraft, but has an ecology of it's own.
Plus we should not forget flying monkeys as a more recent example.

Monsters that Are Witches
Witches in fairy tales are often monstrous looking women and not normal human women with a particular career choice.  These monsters are covered well by the Hag monster in the rules, but there are a lot of different types of hags.  There are swamp hags, hags that live in ginger bread houses at the edge of forests, hags that live under the sea, or rivers, cold wastelands or ones that steal into homes to take your souls, breath or children.  I want to cover as many of these as I could and enhance them with rules I have in the book.
There are other creatures too that often blur the lines between creatures.  The Baobhan Sìth blurs the line between witch, faerie, and vampires. The Strigoi is described as a witch and a vampire.  The Boroka is witch  that under a curse and is also a cannibalistic monster.  The Rusalka is an undead witch.

There are many more, and I still have quite a few on my hard drives.  These though I think represent a good cross section of with related monsters.

For your consideration, the monsters from the Witch.


Baobhan Sìth
Banshee
Batlings
Bendith Ý Mamau
Boroka
Brownie
Cait Sídhe
Druther
Earth Troll
Elf, Gypsy (Ranagwithe)
Fen Witch
Green Jack
Hags
 - Annis
 - Cavern
 - Green
 - Ice
 - Moon
 - Sea
 - Storm
 - Swamp
 - Wood (Makva)
Imp
Jack-O’-Lantern
Night Hag
Rusalka
Scarecrow
Strigoi
Winged Cat
Winged Monkey


The Witch is out now at DriveThruRPG in ebook format.  Print copies are on the way.

Monstrous Monday Roundup #3

Here are some more monsters for Monstrous Monday. We are at the half-way mark of October and the big day is just two-weeks away. By that I mean MONSTROUS MONDAY!

From last week at Hit Adjacent Ally, http://hitadjacentally.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-monday-addendum-wax-mockery.html and http://hitadjacentally.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-monday-addendum-charnel-ape.html

We also have,

• Over at my other blog we have Invisible Pink Unicorns, http://freedomofnonbelief.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-mondays-invisible-pink-unicorn.html
• Super Parasites for the DC Adventures RPG, http://punverse.blogspot.com/2012/10/mastermind-monday-dcs-bloodlines.html
• Armor plated elephant thing that "teleports", http://www.savageafterworld.com/2012/10/savage-menagerie-ankylophant.html
• Japanese ghost heads, http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-monday-nukekubi.html
• Creepy one-eyed snakes, http://towerofthearchmage.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-monster-one-eyed-snake.html
• Cold men, http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/2012/10/cold-hands-cold-heart.html
• More Stick-men, this time the Terrible Two-Headed stick man, http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2012/10/monsteorus-monday-savage-two-headed.html
• Tomb Harvesters for WaRP, http://madavid13.blogspot.com/2012/10/monster-monday-tomb-harvesters-for-warp.html
• Headhunter worm, http://talesofthegrotesqueanddungeonesque.blogspot.com/2012/10/monster-monday-headhunter-worm.html?zx=34f53957d54aa967
• Not sure if he is participating, but Zak has a great monster, http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2012/10/warning-possible-outgrabe.html?zx=67eda53626bdedbf
• and one of my faves, the Succubus, http://daddygrognard.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-adventure-for-every-monster-succubus.html
• Jenny Haniver, Sea Clergy, and Morkoths, http://rolesrules.blogspot.fr/2012/10/monster-monday-jenny-haniver-sea-clergy.html
• Dragonette Swarm, http://thedwarvenstronghold.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstrous-monday-dragonette-swarm.html
• Zombie Cow! http://silverdivinityrpg.blogspot.com/2012/10/monstorous-monday-zombie-cow.html

Happy to see so many cool monsters!

The Awakened Golem

Golems are a big part of the D&D game.  Well. Maybe not a *big* part, but they have their part to play.  What is interesting about them though is the varieties of myths that were pulled together to make them.
The word Golem and the Clay Golem monster have their roots in Jewish folklore, horror and film.  The Flesh Golem is an homage to Frankenstein and his monster.
Other Golems come from a variety of places.  The Iron and Stone Golems seem to have basis in tales, but the most likely origin seems to be the films featuring the Ray Harryhausen monsters, in particular the giant statue from Jason and the Argonauts (whose fertile ground also gave us Skeletons).

The one thing that many of these stories have that the RPG monster does not though is the semblance of true life.  After all.  A Golem with no life that does it's business is no big deal.  But give it a spark of true life and suddenly you have horror.

The Awakened Golem then is a Golem that has been "Awakened", it has a spark of true life.  This is either by accident such as a word or letter is mis-coded in a Clay Golem, or the personality of the original body lives on in the Flesh Golem, or the animating spirit in the Druther overrides the witch's control, or even the golem becomes the vessel of some spirit of vengeance.  What ever the cause a living soul is now in procession of a body that it can only see as an abomination.

Different types of Golems have different chance of Awakening.  This percent is rolled when the golem is made or under special circumstance; such as a nearby tragic death, or a bolt of eldritch lighting hits it.
(These Golems have appeared in various editions of the game)

Statue (any golem made to be a statue):  2%
Iron, Stone, Amber, Silver, Mud (any non-living mater): 5%
Clay, Wood, Druther, Bone (formerly living matter): 10%
Flesh, Corpse (formerly a sentient being): 15%  +5% if body parts come a wrongly convicted murderer.
Plush (special Ravenloft golem): Plush golems and stuffed toys are better handled as an  Imaginary Friend or a Boogey.

In most cases the Awakened Golem will be Chaotic, or at best Neutral.  Some rare cases will occur when the awakened Golem will be Lawful.

The changes to the monster will be a greater intelligence (at least Average, often more) and a blinding hate for whomever created it.  The Awakened Golem, even Lawful ones, will be driven to write some percieved wrong.  An Awakened Golem might want to kill their creator, or kill everyone.  Or it might want to discover the killer of some innocent.  What ever  the motivation it should be tied directly to their origin story.

The Awakend Golem gains HD over their non-awakened counterparts. Better AC and attacks.
Despite their origin and/or appearance, Awakened Golmes are not undead.  They are still immune to the effects of mind affecting spells, sleep, charm and hold.  They do not need to eat (but might do it out of habit) and can not be healed.  Awakended Golems regenerate 2 hp per round, even if reduced below 0hp.  Only fire can completely destroy them since they do not regenerate after fire damage.

Awakened Golem (Flesh Golem)

Armor Class:  0 [22]
Hit Dice: 10d8+15* (60 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 (fistsl)
Damage:  2d8/2d18
Special: immunities, regeneration
Movement: 30’ (90')
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Fighter 12
Morale: 12
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 2800

The Creature (as he is know) is an Awakened Flesh golem. He stands over 7 feet tall and has greenish cadaverous skin. Despising what he sees  himself to be he killed his creator and terrified a nearby village. He currently lives in a cave where he prefers to stay in peace, reading books on philosophy.
If he is disturbed though he will fly into a violent rage and kill anyone that disturbs him. He will not though attack children.
The Creature has been killed many times, only regenerate from the smallest scraps.

OGL Section 15 The Awakened Copyright 2012 Timothy S. Brannan.
All text is Open under the terms of the OGL.
Links are not considered part of this entry and are not under the OGL.